Tragedy, comedy, and music collide in this gloriously animated film. Sita is a goddess separated from her beloved lord and husband, Rama. Nina is an animator whose husband moves to India, then dumps her by email. Three bickering shadow puppets with Indian accents act as comic narrators as these old and new stories are interwoven. Sita Sings the Blues is a Postmodern retelling of the ancient Indian epic Ramayana, presented in a dazzling mix of traditional and collage animation style, with a soundtrack from legendary 1920s jazz singer Annette Hanshaw.

Monsters, gods, goddesses, warriors, sages, pyromaniac monkeys, and winged eyeballs fill the screen with vivid color from start to finish. The narrators’ improvisational debates over the Rama legend join the filmmaker’s own tragicomic story and Hanshaw’s done-me-wrong tunes to layer a modern feminist commentary on the ancient Indian tale. The result is a subtly subversive, visually stunning, highly original work of art!

Drop in! This program is free with Museum admission. On Thursday, general admission is free, courtesy of Shell.